Hmm…jsoon, if that's the only information you have, I wonder whether you can really come to the conclusion that they're aiming for a senior hire. Schools often have guest speakers as part of a talk series, and especially since it was only 2 days after the posted deadline, it seems like a big leap in logic.

The talk was specifically advertised as a "Job Talk,' and the scheduled speaker's research would seem to fit the description of "Cognitive and Brain Sciences, broadly defined" given in their job ad, so I think my logic is sound.

I do not have any corroborating evidence supporting this interpretation though, so not 100% certain.

Whoops..actually, the Job Talk in question was scheduled for Oct 3rd, ahead of the Oct 15th application deadline. I tried to post the link to their events calendar, but I am apparently a "low karma" user.

The person scheduled for the one posted job talk is quite senior with 50+ pubs, is the president of a major organization in the field, and is a great fit for their department. This is just speculation but I wonder if the entire search is an attempt to bring him specifically to Tufts.